


Who Shot First?

by Hino



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, I wrote this for a cheap laugh, spoilers for shido's palace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 13:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15842481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hino/pseuds/Hino
Summary: “Akechi-kun!”“Isn’t there some way to get this open, Mona?”They were the last words Goro Akechi remembered hearing before the gunshots.





	Who Shot First?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JeanieChibi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanieChibi/gifts).



Goro Akechi was beaten, bruised, and dying. He had brought this upon himself with his attack on Joker. Of course, he hadn’t really expected to come out on top. After all, in all his observations of Joker, of Akira Kurusu, he had seen the man was far more powerful than him. He had friends on his side, the winds at his back, and luck always cheering for him. The world determined Akira Kurusu to be the victor.

However, it hadn’t made second-place as much of a death sentence as Akechi had first thought.

 

The watertight bulkhead was up, separating them from each other; Akira and the Phantom Thieves on one side, Akechi and the Shadows on the other. His gun was running out of bullets, his ribs felt broken, and the Cognitive Akechi whom he’d just shot was currently getting to his feet and checking the clip of his pistol.

It was okay if he died here. Akira would finish the job; stop Shido and put an end to all of this. He promised, and Akechi knew well enough that Akira wouldn’t just let it go.

“Akechi-kun!”

Haru’s voice came muffled through the bulkhead. Akechi ignored it, attempting to raise his pistol at the cognition staring him down. It was a standoff, trying to see whether they’d commit, whether the true Akechi could hurt Shido the way he wanted, and whether Shido’s cognition of Akechi really would commit suicide for him.

“Isn’t there some way to get this open, Mona?”

Akechi eased his finger onto the trigger of his gun, sights trained on the Cognitive Akechi across from him. The shadows surrounding them merely watched, as if amused by this showdown between perception and fact.

 

Two bullets were shot.  
Then, there was silence.

 

The order of the bullets however, change the story drastically.

Akechi had been the one to fire first.

Gun trained on his cognitive alter, Akechi pulled the trigger. What should have been a clean headshot (for Akechi had made enough of those to last a lifetime) instead swerved left, clipping the cognition’s ear and nothing else, veering off into the empty warehouse. The wave of dizziness that made him miss caused Akechi to stumble, and the cognition took advantage of it.

Next to fire was the Cognitive Akechi.

Form wounded by the cheap shot to the stomach, the cognition could still aim, although nowhere near as cleanly as it would have liked. Still, it knew where it was aiming.

Judging from the look on Akechi’s face when the cognition fired though, only the cognition itself knew that.

The bullet flew nowhere near Akechi’s head or heart, where he had assumed the shot would land. It didn’t strike him cleanly in the vital organs, much like he’d relayed to Shido when he asked for details on how the murders were carried out. Instead, the shot went through Akechi’s left leg, hitting his pocket on its way.

There was a flash of white, and Akechi knew what had happened.

 

His head hurt bad.  
His leg hurt worse.

Akechi felt like he was spinning, eyes shut tight as he tried to curl in on himself, as if that would stop the pain coursing through him. Instead it only made it worse, given the fact he just bent his leg and last time he checked, that was where he’d been shot.

He attempted to muffle a cry of pain, gritting his teeth and instead spitting a multitude of curses he had thought up while reassembling his model gun after shooting Okumura. At this point, Akechi realized that wherever the hell he was, it was soft, but between the pain and the spinning head and the fact he had just been about to die and then was not, he decided that opening his eyes could wait.

 

It took a good ten minutes for Akechi to feel less like he was trapped inside a washing machine, and more like he’d just stumbled off a fairground ride. He opened his eyes slowly. Too fast and he’d blind himself, but too slow and any nearby attacker would think him close to dead and finish the job.

Akechi paused. Any nearby attacker would have seen him rolling around for the past ten minutes and attacked him already.

Any tension that’d been present had gone straight out the window, and Akechi turned his attention away from hypotheticals and back to the task at hand. Still, he did take care not to blind himself, turning his face so he was practically eating a mouthful of grass (as he’d deduced with his detective skills in the time he’d spent crying and cursing over his leg) before opening them.

 

He had successfully not blinded himself, which was step one of the plan. The next was to sit up, which was far harder considering every time he tried to move his leg into a better position to sit, it decided to kindly remind him it had a big chunk of metal go tearing through it some time ago.

Still, Goro Akechi was a stubborn man who would find a way to his goal no matter what. Taking deep breaths to psych himself up, Akechi braced himself against the ground, arms bent and palms down in the soft grass, ready to push himself up.

“On three,” he mumbled to himself, voice absent of his usual confidence. “One, two, th-”

He pushed himself up and his leg ached. More curses came through his grit teeth as he shut his eyes tight, as if it’d alleviate some of the pain. It didn’t realistically, but the placebo effect was damn strong and like hell Akechi was going to deny it in his moment of need. Now he was sitting up, pained but alive, and he couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

 

An observation of the scenery was in order, so he could find out where he was, but Akechi decided that needed to be put on hold because his leg hurt pretty bad, and that certainly would detract from whatever he could figure out about this place.

Turning his gaze to the wound on his leg, Akechi stopped. That was a lot of blood. A frightening amount of blood. It had soaked through his pants, spreading partway towards his crotch and downwards, towards his knee. “Huh...” he mumbled, caught off guard, “My clothes changed.”

So this definitely wasn’t the Metaverse. Which meant this was a real wound. A real wound that would kill him. “I should-” Akechi reached into his pocket and discovered two things.

One: his phone was broken.  
Two: His leg had a gaping hole in it and it really hurt to touch.

 

This time Akechi didn’t scream, only gasping sharply as he withdrew his hand from his pocket. It was stained red, and he wiped it off on his jacket, before realizing what he’d done and letting out a sigh of defeat.

Without a phone to call for any kind of help, or look up where the hell he was, Akechi lifted his gaze to the scenery in hopes of figuring out where on earth he was.

 

It seemed like he was in a park of some kind. Above the sun shone brightly, blue sky unmarred by clouds or any hint of impending rain. Judging from the way it was sitting, it was either just about to hit midday, or it was already getting into the late afternoon. The lack of exact time made Akechi uneasy.  
He turned his gaze elsewhere in hopes of soothing himself. Instead he only found himself surrounded by trees, all towering far above him. It was as if he’d gotten himself stuck in some forest, or at least in the thick part of a local park. Once he’d wandered into Inokashira Park and gotten lost which resulted in him calling Sae Nijima at 2am crying his eyes out because he couldn’t find the jogging path.

Considering he’d entered the park a little after sunset it was a little embarrassing.

“Hello? Hello!” It hurt to yell, mainly because he’d broken or damn near broken his ribs during his ordeal with the Phantom Thieves, which made deep breaths hurt. How he hadn’t agitated the injury during his shot-leg writhing, Akechi didn’t know. “Is anyone there?”

Silence. Only the faint sound of birdsong answered, and Akechi highly doubted the birds were going to call emergency services for him. That meant he had to get to his feet, and that meant he was going to have to use his bad leg. He sighed. “Let’s just... take this slow.”

 

Goro Akechi wasn’t someone who charged blindly into things. He played the long game, and did whatever achieved his goal, no matter how long it took to get there.

Dragging himself across the grass took some effort, and it hurt his chest a fair bit, but compared to standing up unaided on his wounded leg, it was nothing. As he dragged himself to a nearby tree for support, Akechi noticed that his bloodied wound had also soaked through the entire backside of his pants, as well as left a fair crimson stain on the grass. This blood loss was getting dangerous.

“I can’t die to this,” he told himself as he gripped onto the trunk of the nearest tree, gritting his teeth at how the bark dug into his fingers slightly. “I have to help Joker.” His knees were weak and his palms were sweaty, but there was no vomit on his sweater or trace of mom’s spaghetti as Akechi hauled himself to his feet. “Heh, guess Akira hitting the gym wasn’t as pointless as I’d thou-augh!” 

He’d attempted to take a step, but the moment he’d put any kind of real pressure on his injured leg, it gave out, sending him back onto the grass and making him scream with both pain and anger. “I’m not giving up here.” Fists clenched, Akechi focused himself, reaching out for the tree again and using it to stand.

“You could,” said a voice from the back of his head, laced with underlying intentions and the humour that comes only from watching someone else suffer. Akechi had called that voice Loki.

“Like hell I would after that,” Akechi answered, grinning for the first time since he’d shot the emergency bulkhead switch. “Besides, I never listen to your advice.”

A laugh inside his mind, higher pitched and more well-intentioned than Loki. “Carry on. You cannot leave this to the Phantom Thieves alone. You have worked hard, Akechi.”

“Robin Hood, you always know what to say.” Akechi laughed softly, but it turned into a pained cough as he struggled to breathe, compounded by the pain in his chest. The dizziness that had been in his head before was returning with full force and Akechi leant against the tree. “I’m bleeding.”

Neither Persona answered him, but both of them hated when he stated the obvious. They always kicked up such a fuss on television when he stated plain facts about the Phantom Thieves. Loki once tried to strangle a woman who asked if the Thieves started at Shujin Academy. Akechi merely laughed and said there was a strong implication.

 

A sharp pulse in his head brought Akechi back to reality. “Seems the blood loss is getting to me.” He laughed again, although without coughing, letting his gaze settle over the forest again, in search of somewhere to go, or maybe just something that would make this entire journey less painful.

Akechi felt Robin Hood extend his influence, and without meaning to, Akechi dove into his back pocket, withdrawing some medicine he’d gotten from Shido’s doctors, shovelling it into his mouth. It was bitter and stuck to the roof of his mouth.

“Wash it down with blood,” Loki suggested. Both Robin Hood and Akechi teamed up to slap Akechi’s face, and in turn Loki, for the comment.

Instead Akechi tried to rummage around in his pockets for something to drink. The Metaverse, with all its Persona-summoning glory and additional costume changes, had also allowed Akechi to have infinite storage; being able to grab anything he wanted as long as he focused hard enough. He reached behind him, for his supply of snacks and drinks, but found his hands empty. “The app connects to that too, I suppose.”

In the back of his mind, Loki chanted. “Drink blood, drink the blood.”

Akechi, exhausted and sore and tired and on the verge of passing out, sighed and licked some blood off his hands to try and get the medicine off the roof of his mouth and into the rest of his body where it belonged. The copper taste wasn’t unfamiliar but it was damn awful, and he cringed as the blood and medicine mingled and passed down his throat. “Blech...”

“Nice one,” Loki complimented.

In an attempt to ignore the two Personas now in the back of his head fighting and taking up much of his precious focus, Akechi returned to his task of finding something he could use to support himself. A nearby branch caught his attention, having fallen off a tree and lost all its leaves. Getting over there would be a chore though, but Akechi merely grit his teeth and forced a smile.

He had goals, and he was going to do whatever he needed to in order to reach them.

 

Getting to the branch had been an ordeal but once Akechi had gotten it, stripped off the few little twigs, and accidentally given himself a splinter, he was on the way to getting help. His head was spinning, but the branch helped dramatically, letting him lean against it and not lose his balance nearly as badly as he would have otherwise.

“Hello?” he called again, voice still weak. Maybe if he got hold of another phone, Igor would reinstall the app, and he could jump back into the Metaverse, into somewhere he recognized better and find his way home from there. “Can someone help me? Please? I need some help!”

No answers again. Not even the birds bothered to call out, making Akechi sigh as he trudged onwards. He was sweating, and the blood had soaked through his pants up to the knee. It was surprising that he was even alive, let alone upright, but Akechi chalked it up to stubbornness, and the fact he could hear Robin Hood in the faintest corner of his thoughts trying to keep things going with soft motivation and apparently enough control over Akechi’s body to shut down useless things like sweating or digestion.

But it couldn’t carry him forever. Just on the edge of a dirt road, Akechi felt his legs give out. With the aid of the branch, he could at least lower himself to the ground and lay down, but it didn’t keep him awake. His vision was blurring, his breathing shaky and shallow, and his head was aching.

“Lo-ki.... Robin...Hood.” He was on the verge of passing out, but Akechi still mustered a smile. “I love you both.”

Loki snorted. “Narcissist.”

 

“A narcissist is someone who likes themselves a lot.”

“Liking your Persona does not make you a narcissist.”

“It is literally an aspect of yourself, of course it does.”

 

Hearing his Personas argue wasn’t new, but Akechi still didn’t enjoy coming out of sleep with stupid conversations about mundane things rattling around. Neither Loki nor Robin Hood paid him any mind as he began to stir, rubbing at his eyes in some hope it’d coax them open. 

They did in fact open, far easier than in the forest. It let Akechi see the wooden beams supporting a roof. “That’s... not a forest.”

Goro Akechi, the famous detective, was in fact right about not being in a forest. As he took a few moments to turn his head from side to side and resist the urge to comment about narcissism and self love being two different things, he found out that he had been moved into a room. Currently, he was laying on a bed, covered in a patchwork quilt which was far warmer than anything he’d bought back in Japan. There were little knick-knacks decorating the space, sitting on the dresser and the bedside table, giving the space a warm and comforting feeling.

It was certainly working, because Akechi felt like sinking into the bed and giving up on chasing down Shido. The mattress was soft, the pillow comforting for his sore head, and the blanket warmed him like nothing else had. Akechi closed his eyes and prepared to sleep.

 

He sharply opened his eyes a second later because he passed out on a dirt path and now he was in a house somewhere with no idea what was going on. Faintly, he could hear a ticking clock, although it was drowned out as he sat up, groaning in pain. It was nowhere near as severe as it had been before he passed out, and that confused him.

“My clothes!” Gone was his bloodstained jacket, replaced instead with a comfortable if not overly large sweater. Pulling back the covers revealed that his black trousers were missing too, and the underwear he was wearing were not the same pair he’d put on that morning. This pair had small ducks on them, a bright yellow against the white material. The wound on his leg was bound and dressed too, but Akechi cared more about the fact someone had stripped him naked than the fact they’d tended his wounds.

It was at this point both Loki and Robin Hood had decided to put their argument on hold and instead join Akechi in staring at his new underwear. Akechi could sense their wonder at it, impressed at the ducks printed on them. It made him wonder if they were bored of plain black underpants.

 

At some point Akechi did realize his wound had been bandaged. The white cloth was already stained red with excess blood, but it was far less bloody than it had been before. His ribs felt less sore too, and with a soft touch, Akechi found some bandages tied around his middle, seemingly keeping him from falling apart at the seams. It was nice to know he’d been treated, but the whole waking-up-in-a-random-shack thing wasn’t really doing his mood any favours. Maybe some kindly old lady had rescued him. Maybe this was an attempted kidnapping. Hell, maybe this was a snuff film in the making.

The sound of the door opening startled Akechi from his thoughts of being dismembered in a strangely attractive way, and his gaze fell upon a young man. He seemed to be in his late twenties, with a scruffy brown beard, hair as shaggy as Akira’s, and the same hunch in his posture that Sojiro had. It was strange how much Leblanc had imprinted on him.

The man brightened as his gaze settled on Akechi, who looked like a skittish kid meeting their new teacher for the first time, wide eyed and nervous. "Gott sei Dank bist du aufgewacht! Ich dachte schon, die Hilfe kam zu spät! Du hast mir echt Sorgen bereitet!"

 

Oh for fucks sake.

“Loki? Robin Hood?” Akechi drew the covers up to his mouth, attempting to conceal himself as the stranger looked at him with a tilt of the head. “I don’t think we’re in Japan anymore.”


End file.
